BATE Borisov opened their Champions League campaign with an impressive 3-1 win at Lille, overpowering the French side with a slick first-half display of attacking football. Lille failed to make it out of the group stage in last season's Champions League and Rudi Garcia's team were eager to make a strong impression this time round.

But the midfielder Aleksandr Volodko put the visitors ahead after just six minutes, the striker Vitali Rodionov made it 2-0 in the 20th, and Edgar Olekhnovich added another just before the interval to pile the pressure on Lille.

Aurélien Chedjou pulled a goal back on the hour mark, but Lille failed to create enough chances to salvage even a draw against the Belarussian side. With Bayern Munich also in Group F, Lille face a tough task to qualify.

Lille had a lot of possession but the visitors neat attacking, led by the former Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb, proved too much for Garcia's team to cope with.

Salomon Kalou returned from suspension to take his place on the right of Lille's attack, with the Brazilian Tulio De Melo the lone striker. But Lille fell asleep in defence, allowing Volodko to turn in space and hit a shot from 20 yards that flew past the goalkeeper Mickaël Landreau and into the top-right corner.

Mathieu Debuchy almost equalised for Lille moments later, but his low shot was pushed away for a corner by goalkeeper Andrei Gorbunov.

Rather than showing a patient approach, Lille poured forward in numbers and were soon caught out again. Hleb started the move, threading the ball through to the midfielder Olekhnovich, who then gave Rodionov a simple tap-in from close range.

The Lille midfielder Marvin Martin missed a good chance after Gorbunov came for a cross and missed the ball, leaving Martin with a chance that he wasted, firing the ball high over the crossbar. Things got much worse for Lille when Olekhnovich rifled a shot in at the second attempt in the 43rd to leave Lille with an almost impossible task in the second half.

Garcia made changes, bringing on the strikers Nolan Roux and Ryan Mendes, but it was Chedjou who gave the home side hope when he headed in Dimitri Payet's corner on the hour mark. Roux went close with an audacious backheel that rolled just wide in the 79th, but Lille's attacks petered out as the visitors held firm.